1959 GMC 2 ton bus - 4x4 swap

The worst part about label makers is that the labels don't stand up to hest or petrochemicals. Otherwise, they're the best, I have one.

There is a type that prints on shrink tubing that is heat/chemical resistant. I'm gonna get one for my next full vehicle wiring project.
 
thatbus said:
I'll be in Virigina for a few days if anyone knows of good junkyards in the NoVa area, let me know.
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Most of the old stuff got scrapped when prices went up. Most of the yards around DC are newer cars. PA has some good older ones. If you go down I-81 hit me up.

Grendel said:
Yah, you really need to come here to NH for a month.
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I'll be there for the next proving ground event. Y'all yards are awesome.
 
Grendel said:
Yah, you really need to come here to NH for a month.
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I'll let ya know next time I'm out that way. :usa:

bad zuki said:
Most of the old stuff got scrapped when prices went up. Most of the yards around DC are newer cars. PA has some good older ones. If you go down I-81 hit me up.


I'll be there for the next proving ground event. Y'all yards are awesome.
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I'll likely be around PA in a month-ish to pick up either a MCI coach bus or Wanderlodge for work. :smokin: I'll be headed down I-81 in part of NY and most of PA - I'll hit you up then.

Made it back to Canada a little while ago after spending time in the States with my girlfriend... She knows me well - got me a set of dimple dies lol:

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Whipped this up today. It'll go under the dash to tie it in with the new doghouse and hide some hydraulic steering stuff under there. May use the holes for hot air vents or something...

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Also did some electrical stuff; positive and negative busbars, and then a wiring harness for head/turn/marker lights that I forgot to take pics of...

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Positive busbar with high current, high AIC magnetic-hydraulic Airpax circuit breakers. Drilled and nickel plated them at home. Crazy how good of a finish you can get with just vinegar, table salt, and a strip of pure nickel!

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Just need to decide what to do with the turbo and I can get the engine running, finally. I was leaning towards just running the T04E17 I have in spite of the compressor wheel corrosion. However, I can get a Garret GTA3782B off a rusted out bus at work. It's free and in excellent condition - is it worth running instead?
 
Wheels on the bus go round and round again, hell yeah

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Humvee Prototype/MRAP/whatever you wanna call them tires mounted on the wheels, and wheels mounted on the bus, finally! :smokin:

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Very little bump steer and the calculations I did were actually pretty accurate, just a few degrees off in terms of how much the steering wheel would move throughout the entire suspension range.

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Pretty happy with the amount of flex, healthy amount of space between the tires and everything else throughout suspension travel, can steer lock to lock throughout entire travel, etc.

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Now I just need to figure out what to do with the turbo and that engine will be runnin... since the old one is off I'd rather something new even though it'd probably be fine. Should I stick with another Garret T04E17 or would a GT35/GT45 off a slightly newer DT466 be a worthwhile upgrade? Thoughts?
 
350TacoZilla said:
That's a huge motivational step for you I'm sure. Looks sweet on the tires, can't wait to see more progress man.
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Thanks man! Massive motivational step for sure. I've been plugging away at the electrical buildout, bodywork, and drivetrain for one of the "skoolies" we build at work - somehow I got wrapped up in building two buses at once and of those two, it ain't usually mine that I'm working on... :flipoff2: so it's a nice big step forward to actually get this done. Will be great to hear that DT360 purring again.
 
Cribbing moved to the rear, old rear end removed, and getting ready to blast and paint the frame before winter sets in. That'll let me run wires, airlines, and brake lines now, without having to take that **** out just for paint.

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My Subaru does a surprisingly great job at digging little trenches with this goddamn heavy axle.:flipoff2:

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If anyone wants this thing, I'd give away for scrap value. Would rather see it get used in something interesting than left for dead in metal scrap yard. It's got a 6.4-something high and 7-something low, with a detroit locker. GM 10-bolt pattern from the 50's (and I'll throw in as many wheels as you want - all 5 remaining ones are 3 piece non-widowmaker split rims).

I'm thinking I'll just keep these springs, and build my own version of Kelderman's "2 stage air suspension" which essentially replaces the rear shackle with this:

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One concern I have is with the shackle bushings:

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They're in fantastic shape - no wear whatsoever. This was also the smallest GM chassis to get this size of pin/bushing/hanger - it dwarfs modern F450/F550 stuff and is in line with 80's/90's International and Freightliner stuff. However, being they're steel pins inside bronze bushings, the leaves have barely any flex in the suspension; all torsion forces would be transferred to be the spring, right? I have found polyurethane bushings that'd fit. Would that be a worthwhile upgrade? Would Delrin be worth considering as being more compliant than bronze but less than poly?
 

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thatbus said:
If anyone wants this thing, I'd give away for scrap value. Would rather see it get used in something interesting than left for dead in metal scrap yard. It's got a 6.4-something high and 7-something low, with a detroit locker. GM 10-bolt pattern from the 50's (and I'll throw in as many wheels as you want - all 5 remaining ones are 3 piece non-widowmaker split rims).
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Good thing the ratios suck and the housing wouldn't fit in anything I own and it's on the wrong coast. :laughing:

What's the OD of the hub barrel? Any possibility of turning them down and welding and drilling one's way to 8-lug?
 
arse_sidewards said:
Good thing the ratios suck and the housing wouldn't fit in anything I own and it's on the wrong coast. :laughing:

What's the OD of the hub barrel? Any possibility of turning them down and welding and drilling one's way to 8-lug?
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This axle has a 5.00" to 5.25" hub as I recall.

Believe me I thought about that years ago, around the same time I thought keeping the little 283 small block was practical... :grinpimp: I just wasn't up to the task of welding in new centers to my humvee wheels at that point or embiggening the hub bore, but it would definitely be doable. Funny enough, the Chevy 3500HD and F-Superduty with 19.5's happens to use the same 10x7.25" bolt pattern, so those would fit assuming the hubs are the same diameter. There are also Ford and GM motorhome/step van wheels, 16", same 10x7.25 pattern.

Ironically, I did way more work with my current aluminum Hutchinson wheels than I would've with the 8x6.5 humvees lol. Worth it for running 22.5" tires though.

You may be on the wrong coast, but, the company I work for drives buses to auction in Alberta or BC, and brings back NM or Cali buses, so assuming I could fit this thing through the wheelchair door, there is a possibility... lol
 
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Yeah I'm gonna pass. Sounds like it's on the real small side as far as 2spd rear ends go. At 5" it probably has plenty of meat to lose 1/4" from each side to get you a 4.5" OD for a chevy wheel to slip over. Would probably be real cool for someone building a 2wd 1-ton sized truck of the era.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Yeah I'm gonna pass. Sounds like it's on the real small side as far as 2spd rear ends go. At 5" it probably has plenty of meat to lose 1/4" from each side to get you a 4.5" OD for a chevy wheel to slip over. Would probably be real cool for someone building a 2wd 1-ton sized truck of the era.
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It's basically like a 1950's version of the Dana S110 - Same 12.25" ring gear, Housing section is similar, slightly smaller diameter shafts at 1.438 vs 1.5, but it came with chromoly it sounds like:

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Anyways, embiggened the fuel tank mounts today:

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Also made straps for the tank. Didn't bother putting on the insulating rubber for them yet, though.:

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If anyone has some spare glass-lens cab marker lights that they'd be willing to sell... please shoot me a message. I need two.
 
thatbus said:
It's basically like a 1950's version of the Dana S110 - Same 12.25" ring gear, Housing section is similar, slightly smaller diameter shafts at 1.438 vs 1.5, but it came with chromoly it sounds like:

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That sounds really cool. I'd love to have it clutter up my yard but the logistics of making that happen seem like a non-starter.
 
Fabbed up some brake booster parts today...

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Go figure the nice lookin' stick welds are the ones you'll never see...

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Not pictured; welded a little cam to the shaft above that will trigger a normally-closed microswitch for the brake lights. Will figure the exact position of the pedal tomorrow, then that's the last one done!

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Also welded up a minisplit air conditioner mount for one of the buses at work... Will probably copy this for my own bus.

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And also got a washer fluid tank off one of our junk buses - fits damn perfectly!
 
Thank you. Yeah, it's fantastic to see this thing finally taking shape. It's damn rewarding.

thatbus said:
Absolutely wild. :homer: needless to say that gives me some confidence, hah...


Was planning on some painting today but with the temps at 40°+ and 100% humidity, better spent doing other things lol. Started assembling my starter battery. Sick and tired of replacing lead acids all the time on the buses at work.


Found some LTO lithium ***anate cells for a good deal instead, not that much different than a quality AGM in price. These should last 20-25 years with no greater than 20% loss in capacity. Work fine down to -30°C. No need for a battery management system, either. just simple, "dumb" cell balancers/supercapacitor balancers will do.

Importantly, they'll do 160A continuously or 500A discharge for up to 10 seconds. At 28V that comes out to 14kW... More than enough for my 8kW starter.


No-Ox-Id A on the terminals, and kapton/filament tape to keep everything held together, with FR4 plates keeping everything nice and compressed. (obviously, the stainless straps will get covered up, as will the fuse and busbars).
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To finish with this... I completed the starter battery for my bus.

The nice thing about these LTO starter batteries is that they're very tolerant of overvoltage/undervoltage compared to other lithium chemistries and they have similar voltages to supercaps, so you can use existing stuff made for them. I made a cell balancer with a cheap, "dumb", resistive supercap balancer that will top-balance the individual battery cells once they exceed a certain voltage (2.65V in this case, you can change it by soldering a different resistor onto the PCB).

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No complicated microelectronics, just a bunch of resistors to bleed energy off as heat, a cheap aluminum case for a heatsink, and a FET for each cell that passes current at a specific voltage. I've center-tapped this 24V battery for 12V a couple times, to start 7.6L DT466's and it's done a fantastic job every time.

Speaking of batteries, also seems that two M18's wired in parallel will start my completely dead Subaru in bumfuck-nowhere lol:flipoff2:

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That's ****in awesome. Time to read up on LTO batteries. I've got a few LiFePO4 battery arrays around, this seems easier.
 
so THERE's the secret! I blew a fuse on a dewalt 20v the second time I used it to jump start. 2 in parallel to spread that overdraw oughtta be the key 😂
 
Got the bus/ frame and underside blasted and epoxy primed, doing the black topcoat today.

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Really incredible how little flaking rust there was, or corrosion in general. Aside from a couple dents in the crossmembers, it's like it rolled off the factory floor...

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Also redid a section of the the rear axle's brakelines for some added protection. Can't wait to get this thing under the bus and on four wheels. So damn close!
 
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